Norway reaches 50,000 electric cars sales
Electric car number 50,000 was recently registered in Norway, two years ahead of planned schedule.
With generous incentives that include zero sales tax, free parking and charging and the right to drive in bus lanes, Norway has managed to reach the target of having 50,000 electric cars on the roads two years early.
Only in March, nearly 25 percent of all cars sold in Norway were electric. In addition, hybrid cars have nearly 10 percent of the market, Dinside reports.
The number of new electric cars led the Norwegian car market to hit a record low CO₂ emission, with only 93 g/km averaged by new vehicles registered. In comparison, the average CO₂ emission by new cars in Europe in 2014 was 127 g/km.
Significant achievement
For Norway, a country with a population of a little over five million, reaching a total of 50,000 electric cars on its roads is a significant achievement. But all the incentives to make people buy electric cars have also cost the Norwegian government a significant amount of money. According to Norway’s Minister of Finance Siv Jensen, the country is losing NOK 3-4 billion (€355 million-€474 million) in lost tax revenue per year,NRK reported.
The Government has announced that it will review all benefits owners of electric cars have before the revised state budget is presented in mid-May. This could mean that all or parts of the incentives could be gone already in 2016, Dagens Næringsliv writes.
How do electric cars work in freezing cold Arctic winter temperatures in the Barents Region? Read this article and see how BarentsObserver together with Frederic Hauge, head of the environmental group Bellona, drove from Kirkenes on top of Norway to Murmansk on Russia’s Kola Peninsula.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Driving on the ice road in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Radical road tax changes proposed, Yle News
Norway: Nordic countries join forces to fight emissions, Radio Sweden
Sweden: Weak sales of electric cars and hybrids in Sweden, Radio Sweden
United States: High temperatures sink vehicles traveling ice roads in Western Alaska, Alaska Dispatch News
